Go Figure!

Dear Patricia,

Hi, there, Patricia, my so, so very For Always dearly special and precious For Always soul sisterfriend who you’re For Always so,so very much!!!!! Happy Holidays and A Very Happy New Year To You and To You, Patricia, and to you and yours and to you and yours, sister!!!!! Wow, I love this awesome blog post article of yours with the very applicable title along with the great picture here,sisterfriend! Sister, this blog post article, its great title, and this picture which you have very graciously and generously featured and included with this very powerful blog post article is making me percolate, my so, so very dearest and darling friend. When I was growing up we had one talking mynah bird, and for a time we even had two talking mynah birds. Sister, I so enjoyed and just loved and cherished our birds and beholding their beauty by gazing at them in their cages but somehow in the back of my mind I felt kind of badly and guilty that they were all caged in and not free to fly out with what would be their freedom in nature. Yet I didn’t want to give up having these wonderful birds as pets so enjoying them, looking at them all of the time, and just so, so very much loving and cherishing them. Sister, yours words are just very wise here how we as human beings are a species which goes through all of the effort to give the exalted name, “Splendid Fairywren,” to this very gorgeously magnificent Australian bird but then kill it, stuff it, and place it in a glass enclosure in order for other human beings to gaze upon it and to be in awe of it. You are so right when you share and declare here,”Splendid, indeed!” How folks marvel at the Splendid Fairywren reminds me of how I gazed longingly at my caged pet birds and I have also gazed at stuffed birds in all of their glory at museums as well. I remember a time when I was about ten or eleven or so and my mother and I took the younger bird outside and let it out of its cage in our backyard. There were other wild birds outside flying around and our own pet bird looked at them with what seemed like such longing, yet our pet bird seemed to be confused as if it were trying to think of how it could fly like the wild birds, or as if our pet bird was trying really hard to remember how to fly. Our pet bird made some vain attempts to fly but it was very cumbersome and didn’t make it that far. It seemed to be disoriented. It seemed like it didn’t know how to fly and didn’t quite remember how to fly. Our pet bird had managed somehow to fly to a tree branch but looked utterly frightened-our poor dear pet bird. Then somehow my mother coaxed him down and back into the cage and the bird somehow appeared to be relieved to be back in his cage. Wow, as much as I love those pet birds from my growing up years and so loved and enjoyed them and gazing at their beauty I sort of have mixed feelings like feeling kind of bad and guilty that they were taken out of their natural environment to become our pet birds! Those birds were just so, so very cute and adorable with their great talking and imitating of our human voices! My parents would use profanity a lot and the two awesome pet birds learned the bad words and would imitate my parents saying the bad words!:). When we would have company over the birds in all of their innocence would be swearing up a storm! My parents would become embarrassed by the birds talking and would lie and say that their previous owners had taught them all of those bad words!:). Wow, those birds were such fun, Patricia! Sister, we seemed to have some family confusion as to what to name our two pet birds. My mother, two older brothers, and I called the younger bird The Bird, and my father would call the younger bird alternately Sam or Leo. When we got the older bird later my mother, two older brothers, and I called the older bird, The Older Bird, or The Old Bird, and my father would call the older bird, either Sam or Leo, and we would have to ask him whether or not he was referring to the younger bird or the older bird since he would alternately call both of the birds either Sam or Leo! Sister, the older bird died right after I turned sixteen in February 1978 and the younger bird died six months later in August 1978. Sister, I feel kind of badly and guilty because we didn’t always stay on top of taking care of the birds, and I had some health stuff going on that I think impaired my ability to always be on top of taking care of those so, so very sweet birds. Sister, I even dream about these so, so very precious and special birds about once a month!!!!! Sister, I for sure know what you mean with your brilliant blog post article here. I love gazing upon the loveliness of my pet birds back then but they paid a price by losing their freedom, just as I have enjoyed looking at the sheer grandeur of stuffed birds in museums but the dear birds paid a price with their very lives to be stuffed for my human pleasure beholding them and their beauty. Wow, this is such a great quandary here, sister!!!!!

Sister, as I reflect on 2016 I think of how I thank God continually for YOU, Patricia, and YOU, my so, so very awesomely precious and special Christian Quaker woman have very greatly and immensely blessed and helped me with my very walk with our Sweet Jesus, sisterfriend!!!!!! I thank-YOU so, Patricia!!!!!! My friend, in the going on three years with me writing to you and to your blog and emailing and writing with the snail mail I have grown as a person and as a Christian woman by leaps and bounds, and you have just been so, so very gracious and kind toward me with all of my voluminous and open sharing, Patricia!!!!!! I am a better person from having you in my life and with my very walk with Spirit, sister!!!!!! Yay!!!!!! Sisterfriend YOU are my very, very joy and blessing, and Spirit has blessed me so, so very bountifully by giving you to me as my so, so very dear sister and friend, Patricia!!!!!! I am a better person and a better Christian woman for YOU, Patricia!!!!! Wow!!!!! Yay!!!!!! Yay yay yay yay!!!!!! Patricia, I For Always daily and very frequently pray for and think of YOU, dear, dear precious Patricia, for your dearest and darling husband, for your so, so very dearest Loved One in the long-term care facility, for your awesome children, for your sweet grandchildren for your siblings and all of your great family, for your blessedly pure in heart friendsfamily at your Friends Meeting at Cambridge, for all of your other friends sending to each and every one of you such great positive energy!!!!!! I can feel all of the lovingly caring and sensitively heartfelt thoughts and prayers for me from all of you and they are truly helping me!!!!! I thank-YOU All so!!!!!! Sister, please have such a fun-filled and absolutely fantastic Friday, a wondrously wonderful weekend ahead, may all of your days be so, so very especially blessed, and I pray, hope, and wish for each and every one of you A Very, Very Happy New Year 2017!!!!!! Sister, Spirit so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU, Patricia, and so do I!!!!! YOU are my very, very joy and blessing, Patricia, and so are all of your astounding blog post articles, other great writings and books, and all you do so, so very well in such very fine and excellent fashion trying and working so, so very hard in such a very diligently conscientious manner, my so, so very dear friend!!!!! Yay!!!!! Yay for YOU, Patricia!!!!! Yay for our sisterhood and friendship, Patricia!!!!!! Yay yay yay yay!!!!!!

Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my so, so very dearly and awesomely precious and special Christian Quaker white woman who you’re For Always so, so very much, Patricia, with Such Peace and Love For You For Always, sister of mine, and with Such Blessings and Such Very Even More Blessings For You For Always, friend of mine,

Yours For Always soul sisterfriend Christian black woman and For Always in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa